Organic waste makes up almost half of all the waste generated in the world, and Moldova is no exception. This figure in the country is even more than 50%, according to the What a waste 2.0 study.

It is waste that is the main source of methane emissions into the environment in Moldova and the third source of greenhouse gases after energy and transport.

Various types of organic waste end up in the landfills of the country — from food to cut grass, leaves and branches. This situation is typical for both rural and urban landfills, even if some settlements try to compost biowaste in an organized manner.

According to the leading specialist of the Information and Media Communications Service of the Environmental Agency Natalya Paliy, this type of waste is not taken into account separately, it is included in municipal waste, of which 68,324.63 tons were generated in 2021.

Decomposing in landfills and releasing methane, organic waste very often causes fires. (photo of fires from the folder) The situation is aggravated by the illegal practice of burning dry grass in autumn or early spring. Thus, in January-February 2022, more than 1,300 vegetation burns occurred in Moldova on an area of over 6,000 hectares. In total, almost 10,000 forest fires were recorded in the previous year.

According to the administrator of the public association “e-Circular” Aurelia Bahnaru, there are provisions in the law that favor the composting of “organics”, but “no more”.

Composting promotes natural decay. Organic matter becomes a fertilizer for humus faster without large methane emissions. The advantage is that you can get humus from biowaste both in a private house and in an apartment building. The only difference is in the methods. For those who live on the ground, the easiest option is lazy composting. In a pile, you can rake food waste, as well as leaves, grass, branches on the site. Leaves, by the way, can be left where they fell: they will become mulch for beds, will prevent the growth of weeds, retain moisture in the soil, protect it from overheating and frost, and provide many other useful services.

You can read more about the benefits of a “natural blanket” of leaves at the link.

For residents of apartments there is the option of bokashi (from Japanese — fermentation) — anaerobic composting. This is a controlled fermentation of organic waste to the state of precompost. The resulting mixture can be buried somewhere in the ground or placed in a compost bin and covered with leaves and dry grass.

Despite the existing methods, in Moldova, according to Aurelia Bahnaru, there are few projects for the composting of biodegradable waste, and investment is also scarce.

However, there are still some civil initiatives in this area. And even in the city. Thus, the problem with the accumulation of food waste and the lack of infrastructure for its disposal in Chisinau prompted high school student Ilinca Ursu to organize a separate collection of “organic matter” in her yard. She convinced the neighbors to sort food waste and find a creative use for it: it became food for earthworms. As the girl admits, she decided on this social experiment, disappointed with the irresponsibility of people throwing everything into the general garbage. She was also annoyed by the smells that dominated in the apartment building.

According to Ilinca, at first the neighbors complained that the initiative did not make life easier for them. But gradually people got involved, especially when they felt the benefits: if the “organics” are collected separately, the garbage can be taken out of the house less often.

The founder of the “Ask a Worm” initiative, Eugen Guzun, proposed another way to solve the problem — guerrilla composting. It means that people do not expect infrastructure from the state, but create it themselves in the city.

The initiator of guerrilla composting in Moldova dreamed of creating at least one composting point in each district of Chisinau. He wanted to show how much less waste goes to landfill if it is better sorted. And all this without big investments — just 10 euro is enough. Ideally, a network would be formed of responsible consumers (households and offices) and farmers who, thanks to the resulting compost, would produce organic food. Part of the compost would go to restore degraded land and plant trees.

However, in practice, Eugen encountered difficulties. Many people wanted to set up a composting station in their neighborhood, even helping to set it up, but were unwilling to participate in its maintenance, such as covering the compost with leaves or taking out the garbage that someone had thrown there.

It happened that citizens were frankly disappointed and quit sorting “organic matter”, especially if there were no composting points nearby. They were also embarrassed by the fact that precomposted organic waste is not quite as clean and odorless as they say on the Internet. Volunteers had to explain everything, to convince them. Gradually, the main target audience of such undertakings was determined: citizens who have a summer house (dacha) or a garden outside the city. They better understand why composting is necessary and why it is important to take care of the process.

Unfortunately, most of the composting stations are not working now, Eugen admits. Those that were in public areas were looted, pallets were stolen, and compost bins were turned into warehouses for the homeless or ordinary trash cans. Even those that stood in private courtyards did not survive. For the founder of the “Ask a Worm” initiative, this is food for thought: what needs to be improved in the concept in order to avoid such mistakes in the future?

Very often, food waste is not food leftovers, but discarded products that have not yet expired. Exorbitant waste, especially considering that in Moldova a large part of the population is lacks enough products. The “Public Refrigerator” Association is called upon to pay attention to this problem. It was established in 2020 and provides hot meals to those in need. The founder of the association, Cristina Spinu, said that at first she cooked hot meals at home with her own money, for 5-12 low-income citizens, especially lonely old people. Later, donations began to arrive at the association's account. Those in need of hot meals - lonely elderly people, retired people with modest incomes, the disabled and bedridden ones - are determined by local governments.

Every month, twice a week, about 150 low-income people from various settlements in Moldova receive hot meals from the Public Refrigerator.

At the moment, the Public Refrigerator cooperates only with the Food Bank initiative. “Once a month, it donates food off the shelves, especially fruit, which we offer to retired people. For 3 years I have been calling manufacturers of bakery products, dairy products, meat, sending them official letters — so far, unfortunately, Food Bank is our only partner,”Cristina says, upset with this fact.

Food products with damaged packaging or those with expiration date about to expire are handed over to Food Bank by one of the large supermarket chains in Chisinau, says the company's PR manager Cristina Arama. For the second year now, she has been developing a partnership with Food Bank and donating fruits, vegetables, pies, cereals, coffee that in total form an impressive amount of money.

In addition, to prevent the formation of food waste, stores sell stale vegetables and fruits in the evening at a discount of up to 70-80%. “They can be chopped and used in soups or stews,” Christina added.

In addition to supermarkets, restaurants are a source of biowaste. In Moldova, their activities are regulated by the same Law No. 209. In particular, it requires food service establishments with more than 10 employees to develop and implement waste prevention measures. We found out in several restaurants in Chisinau how the provisions are observed in practice. Andrei, the head waiter of one of them, noted that employees and local residents take home the remains of bread, meat, and bones. But other food waste — onion peel, remains of potatoes, carrots — are thrown into trash, from where they end up in a landfill.

Victor, the manager of another restaurant in the capital of Moldova, said that food waste left by visitors is finely chopped and “used”, but did not specify where and how. According to the administrator, potatoes, carrots, onions, citrus peels are collected in bags, and then they are fed to animals. Neither of the two managers was able to answer how much organic waste their catering establishments produce during the day, week or month.

In addition to food waste, organic matter also includes dry leaves, mowed grass, branches, etc. Such waste is not only in villages, but also in cities. For example, local services of the municipality of Chisinau collect leaves that have fallen on the streets and in city parks and squares. According to an employee of the Management Company of the Municipal Housing Fund No. 5 of Chisinau Raisa Railean, they are recycled and used to make pellets.

The leaves are harvested from mid-August to December, and for this period this is a small increase in wages for workers. It happens that 4 tractors are loaded per day. However, not all leaves falling on the ground in the Chisinau municipality need to be collected, says Raisa Railean. Some, especially in parks, need to be left to rot, and then they will become fertilizer for the soil.

Collected leaves should be clean, not mixed with other debris, says Green Plantings Management Association foreman of Chisinau municipality Anatol Munteanu. In this form they are taken to a special site for organic waste, where they are composted and biohumus is obtained. Then it is used for planting trees, lawn care in the areas under the jurisdiction of the “Green Spaces” municipal enterprise. The collection of leaves is carried out in accordance with the Regulation on the delimitation, management and protection of green plantings in the Chisinau municipality of July 18, 2017. Leaves mixed with other garbage are sent to a landfill in the village of Pruncul.

Ecologists urge to leave leaves where they fell, because that it is part of nature that knows best how to turn them into valuable fertilizer, says Gabriela Isac, one of the founders of the Seed it Forward initiative. She reiterates, that in the forest, no one collects leaves. The soil there has a protective layer and is very fertile.

The capital of Moldova also organizes the collection and processing of firs and spruces left after the New Year holidays. In early January, public utilities urge citizens not to throw them into the general garbage, but to store them separately. At the station in the municipality and Chisinau, the raw materials are processed together with leaves and other biodegradable waste and compost is made, which is used as fertilizer for plants.

Organic waste management in Moldova is still at its formation stage, and here much depends on the cooperation of the authorities with local citizens, emphasize our experts.

Of the 415,766.09 tons of garbage accumulated in the country in 2021, 552.27 tons were medical waste, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Their generation is regulated by the provisions of Law No. 209 (Article 55) and the Sanitary Regulations for Waste Management. The requirements apply to all medical institutions.

Some medical rubbish is autoclaved. This is a technology for the thermal treatment of infectious and sharps waste at low temperatures (from 100°C to 180°C) and in humid conditions (hot steam under pressure) in equipped rooms. Other waste is incinerated in special installations that provide high temperatures (+1200°C and more).

According to Aurelia Bahnaru, the biggest difficulty here is that hospitals do not know how to handle toxic and hazardous waste, in particular mercury-containing waste (mostly mercury thermometers).

A network of pharmacies in Moldova collects expired medicines and medical equipment, but not mercury. The same applies to masks, gloves, overalls, shoe covers. We went to several family doctor centers in Chisinau and saw used shoe covers being thrown into trash cans. They were also lying near these medical institutions on the street.

There are such indicative initiatives as the campaign to collect expired medicines and medical devices in Chisinau. It was launched in April 2021 by the Felicia pharmacy chain, installing special containers in its institutions.

Over 4,600 kg of expired medicines, 58 kg of plastic packaging and 4 kg of medical products were collected during the campaign.

Ruslan Nercash, CEO of MoldRec Group, clarified that most of the medical devices collected in Moldovan pharmacies are waste of electrical and electronic equipment. They are sorted, packaged and transported to processing plants in Buzau and Campia Turzii in Romania. Expired medicines from individuals are also sorted and storedin sealed metal containers. This prevents them from polluting the air, water or soil. Temporarily they are in the warehouse of “MoldRec Group” on Industrialnaya Street in Chisinau, and then they are subject to destruction in France.

Transportation is not a cheap pleasure. It turns out that all collected medical waste is collected in Chisinau. As it arises, until the solution of the issue at the state level arrives.